


Secrets

by dragonofdispair



Series: Roads [14]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-01
Updated: 2008-05-01
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes there are just some things you're better off not knowing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

"Prime!"

"Yes, Ratchet."

The bright yellow medic stalked over to the leader of the Autobots. "What is this Lennox was telling me about an error?"

"Error?"

"In Scorponok's coding?"

Scorponok, clamped to Optimus's hip, made a hiss of displeasure. One of Optimus's hands dropped to stroke the scorpion along the armor on his back. "It didn't matter. Despite the error, he quite clearly conveyed that it would be impossible to grant you permission for a processor scan, and since you cannot do a scan without permission, I thought it best not to mention it."

"Slag and scrap! You know I can do an emergency scan in cases where there's evidence of an error possibly detrimental to the patient -- which from Lennox described, it fits."

Scorponok hissed again, this time with a slight aggressive rattling undertone. Ratchet watched the drone. His forcefields remained powered so Ratchet's medical scanners weren't giving him any information, but the four red optics were brighter than they should have been and flickered like the movement of human eyes during their REM cycle. Even without a medical scan, he could see the signs of a hard-programmed response -- in this case aggression.

It changed a few things if Scorponok was hard-programmed not to allow anyone to look at his coding. Oh, what he said to Optimus about emergencies still applied, but he could see why Optimus -- whose primary function was actually to mediate conflicts among his troops so they remained an effective unit -- would choose not to mention Scorponok's error. Ironhide was still looking for any excuse to denounce the drone as a Decepticon assassin. And if Scorponok's response to someone trying to examine his processor was to attack...it could have gotten messy.

Ratchet opened a private communication channel with his leader. "Prime."

Optimus responded on the same channel. "Yes Ratchet."

"I want you to record this statement and attach all verifications that I am who I am and that I am under no outside influence."

That got him a curious look, but the truck did what was asked. Ratchet could feel Prime's limited medical scanners as they checked him over as thoroughly as they could. "Verified. Recording."

"Whatever happens in the next few breems is my fault. Are you slagging listening Ironhide? Don't you blame him for something I'm provoking. End recording."

Prime looked amused. Of course he could hear what he was recording. He also looked slightly relieved. "Prime," he continued over the still closed channel, "I want you to stay out of it too." That killed both the amusement and the relief.

"But -- "

"No 'but's Prime. My message to Ironhide only covers me. If you get caught in it he'll have a fit."

Firmly he disengaged his battle programing and centered his emotions. Scorponok was a patient -- unruly and possibly violent in this situation, but still -- not a target. He did not need battle programming to deal with a patient.

Then Ratchet turned to Scorponok, who seemed to sense what the medic was planning and let go of Optimus to drop to the ground -- where he could burrow and the medic would never catch him. "No you don't, slagger." Faster than should have been possible, Ratchet caught the scorpion's tail before he could touch the earth.

Undeterred he twisted up to bite the hand holding him and bit it, harder than he'd ever bitten one of the Autobots before. Ratchet cursed, and grabbed at Scorponok's armor behind his head. With a screech he powered up his claw-cannons and shot. One blast put scorch marks in armor and burnt wiring in the medic's leg. He just barely managed not to allow himself to fall. Letting go of the tail he quickly dug through the wiring around Scorponok's head to find the cable he needed to yank to offline his patient. He found it, just as Scorponok buried his tail stinger in the arm holding him. Scorponok fell unconscious.

Eventually his self-repair would reconnect that cable, but by that point Ratchet would be connected to his CPU and that would the slagger offline until he was done.

Carefully he unhooked the stinger from his arm. He looked over his wounds. He looked like he'd been attacked and Ironhide was going to throw a fit. His arm was the worst -- he was going to have to re-solder some wires right away.

"Are you alright, Ratchet?"

Ratchet didn't look up from the repairs on his arm. "Yes Prime -- Slagger was trying to escape more than anything. It's definitely been hard wired into him not to let anyone look at his code, but he's got some leeway in how to prevent it. Don't know if you caught it, but he was trying not to damage me too much. He'll have some nasty firewalls though."

Usually medics had codes to get into a mech's processor in an emergency, but Ratchet doubted his Autobot codes would be acknowledged by the Decepticon-programmed firewalls. He did have a few Decepticon medical override codes taken from prisoners saved in his memory banks, and he'd try them, but they weren't recent and even if Scorponok had ever been programed to allow a medic through, the codes might be too old. Which would leave Ratchet navigating past the drone's firewalls on his own. Fun. Not.

Finished with his arm, he off-lined his optics to concentrate on his own processor. First, he re-familiarized himself with the drone initialization program Scorponok had transmitted to him a couple of hours after he'd climbed into Optimus that first time. It lacked the final authorization, which had allowed Ratchet to examine the program at the time without initializing a link, but even without it Ratchet could force the issue. So he familiarized himself with the program so he could avoid it. Above and beyond getting a look at his coding and finding the errors, his first priority was that he not link Scorponok.

Then he brought up his own special medic's firewalls, designed to protect him from other firewalls without inhibiting his ability to perceive the other mech's coding. And finally he readied his medical bypass codes -- both his Autobot ones and the stolen Decepticon ones -- on the off chance any of them would work.

"Ratchet...?"

"Shut up and let me concentrate."

Gently he connected to Scorponok's CPU.

Examining a mech's code wasn't anything like what humans imagined telepathy to be. There wasn't imagery or any real communication. A medical scan couldn't even touch the patient's memory banks. There was just code. The outer edges of which were "sensory" (for lack of a better word) coding and firewalls.

Ratchet perceived Scorponok's sensory coding react to his connection and shift things around, but he couldn't tell right away what was being shifted. He looked at the firewalls. He hadn't even touched them and they seemed as every bit as nasty as he'd predicted they'd be, but there was an anomaly. A weak point in the defensive programming. He started to examine it, then pulled back when one of those shifts blocked his way. It wasn't a strong shift, but there wasn't any point in battering through when he wasn't sure what the effect would be.

The block dissolved when he pulled back. Ratchet looked at the weak point again -- there shouldn't be any weak spots in a mech's firewalls. This time he perceived a few lines of the code making up the weak spot before a block formed. Again he allowed himself to be rebuffed, letting his awareness of Scorponok's processors fade almost completely while he examined that little bit he'd perceived.

It was a piece of the initialization program. He'd thought that might me the case, but wanted to make sure. And now that he was sure, Ratchet wasn't going to touch that part of his patient's code again.

Attention back on those nasty firewalls, Ratchet transmitted each medical override code -- first his Autobot ones and then the Decepticon ones, waiting a tick after each for a response. Nothing, until he got to one of the oldest stolen codes, this one just under twenty-five vorns old. Like the ripples from a stone being thrown in a puddle, Scorponok's firewall coding switched from active to inactive.

Allowing himself a metaphorical sigh of relief that he wouldn't have to fight his way through those firewalls, Ratchet started examining Scorponok's programming. He started with the relative simplicity of motor functions, which were there. He now knew more than he really wanted to about how he aimed and fired his tail than he really wanted, and after a moment determined there was nothing wrong there. He moved on to more complicated mental algorithms.

There was one collection of files so closely related to motor functions it was almost impossible not to examine them next. It took some doing to interpret, as the concept was almost as foreign to him as that of human clothing. Each file was how to produce a sound effect, with tags describing how the Autobots and their human allies interpreted the sounds. Even which sounds were more appropriate to use in the presence of different individuals. Taking a quick glance at the time stamps associated with the files and their tags, he realized the drone was updating them almost constantly.

This was part of Scorponok's self written code. He skimmed over the rest of it just to make sure, but from what Lennox had said, Ratchet didn't think the problem would be in anything the drone had written himself. He was somewhat appalled at some of what he found. The implications -- even without the associated memories -- were upsetting. He examined the coding associated with his English comprehension, and then the file containing the Lennox's "Morse Code". Both were uncorrupted. As was that involved with his Cybertronian comprehension.

He found the deeper programming -- the stuff his creator had instilled in him when he was being built. There was a bunch code associated with this side of the initialization program. Ratchet left that alone. He could see, without examining it closely, that all of it was inactive -- meaning that the problem wasn't there -- and he didn't want to risk engaging the command links. And there were a list of prohibitions that could only be overridden by use of the command links. Allowing any examination of his programming code was on that list -- that was why Scorponok had had such leeway when it came to an appropriate response; the command "don't" was there, but how he prevented it was left to his own discretion.

It was depressing to realize exactly how long that list was, but, as much as Ratchet hated that he had to admit it, the problem wasn't there.

"Moving" in a different direction he found something that may be responsible for the effects Lennox had described. It was intertwined with the deeper portion of his lingual subroutines, funneling complex output through the drone initialization program. But if that was responsible, it wasn't a glitch. It was deliberate and worked perfectly. Just to be sure, he examined the rest of Scorponok's programming --

\-- and ran into something that felt like a very hastily constructed firewall. The "attack" wasn't very powerful, but still crackled along the medic's own firewalls before subsiding. Worried -- internal defenses where there shouldn't be any were sometimes a sign of a virus -- Ratchet started combing through the firewall programing to see what was behind it. It didn't take long to realize that the firewall had the distinct "feel" of Scorponok's other self written programming. Scorponok had built this himself, and, perceiving the time stamp, less than thirty human minutes ago -- about the time Ratchet had started to confront Optimus about scanning Scorponok's processor.

He stopped. So whatever was behind that was something the drone specifically didn't want him to know. Usually Ratchet would take the self-built firewalls as a sign that patient knew exactly what was there and allow the patient his privacy. But on the other hand, Scorponok had been an enemy until very recently. While Ratchet wasn't as rabidly distrustful as, say Ironhide -- didn't in fact have any of the almost reflexive dislike either of the war-built Autobots had -- he still knew that any thing the Decepticons tried to keep secret was something the Autobots would be better off knowing.

He started working his way through the firewall again. It was hastily constructed and somewhat incomplete, like he'd copied the firewall program from a file, but had deleted pieces. And none of it was based off his outer firewalls, which was a common habit when a mech was firewalling specific bits of code. Why was obvious -- those outer firewalls were nasty and might have burned out the medic's processor if he'd made a mistake; this one was mostly non-agressive, trying to block, redirect, or using milder "attacks" to try and discourage the invasion. Finally, he was nearly through when something triggered, switching the firewall from active to inactive with something that might have been resignation, if expression of emotion had been possible at this level. He got his first look at the part of his programming Scorponok had been hiding.

This was damaged. That was the first thing he noticed. The damage was old too -- older than the first Autobot kill definitely attributed to Scorponok -- and, disturbingly, had the self-written feel to it Ratchet was beginning to recognize. Scorponok had done this to himself, not long after he would have first come online. Why?

To answer that, he tried to first find out what had been damaged. Ratchet recognized it -- he'd seen such programming before in Decepticon-builts. It was re-enforcement that he was a Decepticon and that the Autobots were enemies.

There was also a mission statement, written by his creator, to kill a specific Autobot: Orion Pax, or as it was also written in the command, Optimus Prime.

Surprise pulled his awareness back into his own processor and broke the connection. He onlined to the almost twin sounds of Scorponok's shriek and his own cry.

Scorponok backed away from the two larger mechs, shivering in fear. Ratchet saw his back legs start to dig into the dirt.

"Optimus! Don't let him -- !"

Prime didn't hesitate. He grabbed the half-burrowed scorpion, digging a large furrow in the ground in the process, coming up with almost as much dirt as metal. Contrary to Ratchet might have expected though, the Decepticon drone didn't make any other attempts to so much a move once caught, just shivered there in Optimus's hand. He shook his head to try and clear the static from his thoughts -- a useless human gesture, that didn't do anything but make Optimus worry.

"What happened, Ratchet? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just...give me a breem."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm slagging sure, you overprotective glitch."

Shaking his head again, Ratchet dimmed his optics to sort what he'd just found -- Scorponok's primary function, above even being an obedient little drone, was to kill Prime. Logically that meant that he should do everything in his power to make sure they weren't even on the same planet. But...that part of his code was damaged, so damaged that Ratchet would be surprised if Scorponok had even identified himself as a Decepticon after the damage had been inflicted. Self inflicted. Scorponok had wanted to kill that bit of code, and had done a slagging pretty good job of it too. He made a decision.

He cycled air through his vents and brightened his optics, to find Optimus eyeing him in concern. "My friend, what happened?"

Ratchet made a noisy sighing sound, then sneered at himself. Slagging humans. Being on this planet was affecting him, making use their sound effects to express emotion, like a human. "Nothing Optimus. I just found something he didn't want found."

"And he attacked you?"

"No. It just surprised me. I can tell you that what's causing his language error is that anything more complex than can be conveyed in his normal manner gets funneled through his command link programming, warping it, so he can talk only to his master. It's not a glitch, and can't be changed."

"And what surprised you..."

"Is filed under medical privacy."

Optimus looked worriedly at the scorpion drone trembling in his hand, then at Ratchet, still seated on the ground, not sure that if he tried to get up he'd remember he had two legs, not six. From the long familiarity with his commander and friend, Ratchet could tell what was going through his processor -- he saw a problem, a conflict between two people he was responsible for, he wasn't sure of the origin of and wasn't sure how to solve. He was going to try and get more information. "And if I ordered you to tell me?"

"I'd tell you, you need the authorization of a full hearing to override medical privacy to get the results of a processor scan the medic on sight considers non-relevant to any health problem or threat."

Ratchet smirked at the expression of utter disbelief on Prime's faceplate. Not without reason, though. A full hearing required that the officer making the request plead his case to two Autobot officers of equal or higher rank. Or, in the case of Prime, who had no equals or superiors in rank, four officers higher ranked than the medic in question. He watched Optimus run the names of every Autobot officer they didn't have a confirmed death notice of through his CPU, trying to figure out who he'd need to appeal to a hearing. As Ratchet was one of the highest seniority medics out there and was of officer rank himself -- Optimus would need unit commanders or their First Lieutenants. Jazz, had he still been alive, would have been one, but even if others were still alive, it could be centuries before they made it to Earth.

While his commander was busy, the medic took the time to do a quick run through his own processor and delete the loose bits of copied Scorponok code that had gotten lodged in there by the abrupt disconnect. Specifically he was looking for bits of Scorponok's motor and sensory functions. He, Ratchet, had no need or desire to know how to move on six legs, or fire a tail stinger, or what it was like to perceive through four optics not two. How Decepticon medics dealt with creature drones, he could never figure out. The slaggers didn't even build standardized creature drones.

When he was sure he had deleted it all, he got to his feet. Scorponok huddled in the big mech's hand, had stopped trembling and was staring at Ratchet with what could have been disbelief -- not that Ratchet considered himself a good interpreter of an insect's facial expressions. Optimus still looked shell-shocked. It was fragging funny. Unfortunately, Ratchet's sniggering snapped him out of it.

"My friend, that was cruel." Ratchet tipped his head to one side in question. "We don't even know if Ultra Magnus, Rodimus and Prowl are still alive, much less the Wreckers and the other teams."

The medic sighed again, and folded his arms across his chest the way he'd seen some humans (Sarah Lennox) do when they were trying to be stern. "I didn't mean to make you consider that, but I'm not changing my mind. If you want me to give you Scorponok's results, you're either going need a full hearing or convince me it's an emergency -- and right now, getting a hearing together is more likely."

Optimus still looked troubled.

Ratchet continued, trying to reassure him, "Prime, I know you want to mediate a conflict you think started here, but for once it'll be better if you don't know."

He didn't like that. Ratchet could tell he didn't like that. But he wasn't arguing anymore. He ran two fingers down the plating of Scorponok's back and then lowered him to his hip. He clasped there, somewhat tentatively to the medic's optics.

Then Optimus transformed into his Peterbilt form, with Scorponok somehow managing to end up sitting over the back set of wheels of the truck behind the cab.

"Primus, how long did you two fraggers practice that?" The question was mostly rhetorical and Ratchet didn't wait for an answer, transforming as well, before heading back a bit closer to the city.

  
fini


End file.
